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U.S. stock market report 0946 ET-13April2009 One-month implied S&P 500 volatility is down-Goldman ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One-month implied S&P 500 index volatility has declined 12 percent this quarter. "By this point in the earnings season it has typically increased by 10 percent," said Goldman Sachs derivative strategists in a note. The strategists, who look at S&P 500 average stock and index volatility (one-month) across the last 16 earnings cycles, see two reasons for the decline in near-term implied volatility. One is a drop in average stock volatility. "Over the last 16 quarters SPX stock volatility has increased by an average of 15 percent from two weeks prior to Alcoa earnings to one week after," they said. "However, stock volatility has actually fallen 6 percent heading into the bulk of this earnings season." They also cite a major drop in pair-wise stock correlation and note that S&P 500 realized correlation is now at 0.52, down from 0.57 last week.

Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net

0930 ET 13April2009-Markets open lower on GM fears, ahead of earnings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Major U.S. indexes opened lower on Monday, after a report that the U.S. Treasury department was directing General Motors to lay the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing by June 1.

Investors were also bracing for the release of quarterly results from such banks as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. The results are scheduled for release later this week.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.5 percent to 8,038.78 while the S&P 500 lost 0.6 percent to 851.27 and the Nasdaq was off 0.7 percent to 1,641.87.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net 0913 ET 13April2009-Crude oil falls after IEA cuts demand outlook ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May crude futures fell on Monday, dropping after the International Energy Agency cut its forecast for oil demand.

The IEA on Friday said that world oil demand would fall by 2.4 million barrels per day this year compared with 2008, as the rate of contraction in fuel consumption reached levels last seen in the early 1980s.

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The contract slid 2.7 percent to $50.82 per barrel.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net 0857 ET 13April2009-Bove starts JPMorgan, Wells Fargo at buy ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove on Monday started coverage on JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, rating both banks buy.

Bove said that JPMorgan was "clearly not insolvent," but that the bank's loan losses would stay very high throughout 2011 and remain the company's key problem.

Writing about Wells Fargo, Bove said the bank was "a very cheap stock," and that it could earn its way out of its current problems.

Despite that, Bove also wrote that the company "has an over-extended balance sheet and a need for additional capital."

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net 0847 ET 13April2009-Action on AIG unit may cost taxpayers: WSJ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The controversy surrounding American International Group's employee bonus payouts could make the process of winding down the insurance company's financial products unit more costly for taxpayers, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The paper cited unit head Gerry Pasciucco as saying that the controversy had "hurt morale" and "stunned people such that our wind-down has slowed down."

"Taxpayers probably have been damaged," Pasciucco told the paper.

Shares of AIG closed Thursday at $1.16.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net 0842 ET 13April2009-BB&T shares could come under pressure: Barron's ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shares of BB&T Corp could come under pressure because of economic weakness in its mid-Atlantic and southeast strongholds, Barron's wrote.

The publication added that the weakness could require the regional bank to set aside more capital to cover rising losses in its residential and consumer portfolios.

Shares of BB&T fell 3.5 percent to $19.60 in premarket trade.

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net Keywords: MARKETS STOCKSNEWS

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